Coal News - Published on Wed, 10 Oct 2018

Times of India reported that in a bid to augment Western Coalfields Limited’s (WCL) coal dispatch capacity from Umred, the Nagpur Central Railway (CR) is developing a new station at Makardhokda between Butibori and Umred. Recently, railway minister Mr Piyush Goyal had asked the railway zones and also told Coal India Limited (CIL) to boost coal supply to power plants. For the past six months, WCL’s Umred siding is despatching only eight rakes per day on an average. Senior railway officials said that “In order to double the capacity to meet coal consumers demand, a full-fledged station will be ready by October 15, taking the number of rakes being dispatched from Umred to 12.”

To meet the increasing demand of consumers, the new crossing is being constructed as an intermediate crossing station at Makardhokda, which is 15km from Umred siding towards Butibori. The total section from Butibori to Umred is 32km.

Mr Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, chairman-cum-managing director of WCL, said that “Construction of this crossing station is being funded by WCL at a cost of INR 8 crore. We expect that the station will be commissioned this month.”

Mr Mishra told TOI that with the intermediate station being commissioned, supply of empty rakes will increase as both empty as well as loaded rakes can now be placed at the new intermediate station.

He said that “With this, the number of rakes to be dispatched from Umred siding is expected to increase from present average of 8 per day to 12. This will go a long way in meeting demand of consumers.”